After finally leaving Christchurch we drove south towards Lake Tekapo. The drive was a great one, we passed Mt Hutt, the nearest ski fields from Christchurch and of course those great big Southern Alps came into view again.. and what a view! We arrived at Lake Tekapo in the morning and was immediately amazed at the colour of the water..it was such a bright blue! We, along with herd and herds of Japanese tourists, visited the Church of the Good Shepherd which was built right by the lake and is one of the most picturesque little churches ever.. apparently very popular for weddings.. people come from all over the world to get married here! There is also a monument of a sheepdog in memory of all the sheep dogs that helped to maintain and build the beautiful Mackenzie Country.
We did a fantastic walk up Mt John where we were greeted with the best ever 360 view (I know I have said this before but this really was the best!) It was incredible, the bright blue lake below and then the Southern Alps behind us and fields and fields of …. It was such a good walk..I took an enormous amount of photos!
It suddenly occurred to me while we were up there that this is the reason people love the South Island so much...it really is stunning.
The next day we drove on with the intention of getting to Mt Cook and spending a few days there. We passed another beautiful lake called Lake Pukaki on the way, and reached the first view point of Mt Cook. We were very excited to catch a glimpse of the majestic Cloud Piercer mountain..the biggest in New Zealand. Unfortunately it was completely covered by clouds! We asked at the Isite nearby what the weather forecast was for the next few days and were told to not even bother going to Mt Cook as it will be raining and covered in cloud for 3 days! Oh well. We were disappointed and decided to cheer ourselves up by visiting a salmon farm! The Mt Cook Salmon Farm is the worlds highest commercial salmon farm at 790 metres. Now this was exciting!
We got to feed the salmon and watch them fight and jump out of the water for the food..they were massive! And of course we bought a huge amount of salmon to eat! We had the salmon as sashimi later that evening with some avocado and some sushi rice and it was the best and freshest salmon we have ever tasted! It certainly made up for missing Mt Cook.
The next day we drove on with the intention of getting to Mt Cook and spending a few days there. We passed another beautiful lake called Lake Pukaki on the way, and reached the first view point of Mt Cook. We were very excited to catch a glimpse of the majestic Cloud Piercer mountain..the biggest in New Zealand. Unfortunately it was completely covered by clouds! We asked at the Isite nearby what the weather forecast was for the next few days and were told to not even bother going to Mt Cook as it will be raining and covered in cloud for 3 days! Oh well. We were disappointed and decided to cheer ourselves up by visiting a salmon farm! The Mt Cook Salmon Farm is the worlds highest commercial salmon farm at 790 metres. Now this was exciting!
We got to feed the salmon and watch them fight and jump out of the water for the food..they were massive! And of course we bought a huge amount of salmon to eat! We had the salmon as sashimi later that evening with some avocado and some sushi rice and it was the best and freshest salmon we have ever tasted! It certainly made up for missing Mt Cook.
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